Dr. Frinks splits the community further still

Not only did the violence expose the vulnerability of the African American community, its consequences divided them. Nantambu points specifically to the arrival of Dr. Golden A. Frinks as a catalyst for the insurrection's dissolution.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Kojo Nantambu, May 15, 1978. Interview B-0059. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

LARRY THOMAS:

Do you think it had any effect at all on the attitudes of black people in
Wilmington?

KOJO NANTAMBU:

Yeah, an effect on the total community. It had a demonstrable effect on
the black community, especially in terms of political activity
...

LARRY THOMAS:

Positive effect?

KOJO NANTAMBU:

No, man, negative effect. The effect was totally negative and purely
psychological more so than physical, but naturally the psychological
affects the physical because one is synonymous with the other. After
that, we lost total support of the parish because ...

LARRY THOMAS:

Do you think the elder population was with y'all, behind
y'all?

KOJO NANTAMBU:

They were behind us a hundred percent in the beginning, when the white
folks started it; while the children were protesting, they were behind
us one hundred percent. That was one time that I saw the community
totally behind us. And they stayed behind us until that damn Golden
Frinks came here. Up until that time, we were still organizing. We still
were trying to get the students together. This is where we really got
our church together. We were still having regular meetings at a few of
the churches. Central Baptist was one of the churches that let us have
them in. But all the other churches closed their doors, man.

LARRY THOMAS:

When was this?

KOJO NANTAMBU:

Between February and April, May, '71 ... We still
tried to get together and we had the parish with us then. We tried to
get together and have some ...

LARRY THOMAS:

After this had dropped off?

KOJO NANTAMBU:

We weren't going to let it die, man. We weren't
going to let the movement die. We wanted things to stay active and we
had a lot of the parish still with us. But we would never get a place to
meet. Every time we tried to get a church, they closed the door. If we
got a church, about the time we got there and got the meeting going,
we'd get put out. Reverend Vaughan even put us out of his
church. He'd got shot because
...